Act 1: Flitting Shadow Muted Whisper
by Micky-P
Summary: Visnock, Eldon and Pandora, a motley crew of conflicting personalities run a small private investigations buisness in Prontera. When a Champion of the Monk order is missing presumed dead, these three stooges are met with a case that will test their limits


Disclaimer: I do not own Ragnarok Online or make any claim to owning any part of it. The characters however due to the nature of Ragnarok Online being an MMO are entirely mine.

It's a funny world we live in, you know? A great sage has said that the pen was mightier than the sword, however can that always be true? The strokes of a pen may bring down an empire or foster a great love, words of truth and words of fiction alike, the pen writes them all. The sword however is also a mighty tool, with the sword an empire can be built, and a great love lost. Nothing in this material world is mighty, nothing...save human will. Will is what builds the empire, will is what fosters great love, will is what gives us humans mastery over animals and demons alike. It is by that will which I work my craft, by human will I hold mastery over nature's elements, by will I command extra planar creatures, by will I stretch my command from the smallest atom, to the whole universe. My will however, is not enough...especially when I have a lazy and annoying bohemian Bard idly strumming notes while I try to work.

I could feel the vein throbbing on my forehead and decided enough was enough, "Eldon will you put that bloody thing down!" I snapped, twisting my head to meet his eyes.

Eldon looked up from his chair across the small room we rent at the Prontera Inn, "You said you didn't care what I did as long as I kept my mouth shut" he said in a snide tone.

"You knew damn well I meant not to make any noise! Why do you have to be here anyway? Shouldn't you be off making some money on the street?" I barely kept myself from shouting, the landlady gives me no end of trouble when it comes to raised voices...if only she felt the same regarding Eldon's music I could get some work done around here!

"Street performing Visnock?!" He snorted, "Such a thing is below one of my ability, it is no fault of mine that those of prestige in this city have no current need of a Bard" He said in the snobbiest voice he could muster, as if he were high class!

"At least you would be getting some money, which might come in handy if you ever want to see payment for our current job" I said this, fully knowing that this argument would not go well for me, Bards as you may know are absolute devils when it comes to manipulating conversations and putting well spoken words into play.

Eldon began a solo, his fingers playing over the strings with almost unnatural grace, the music he produced was indeed of a high calibre as he said, but that was no excuse for being picky about work.

"I may go see if the tavern requires my services, slightly more dignified than street performing don't you think?" He said with none of his usual idleness, as he stood and swung his lute onto his back. "You don't mind if I borrow some zenny? I might avail myself some food while I'm there" His attempt at a convincing tone would fool many, but I've known him too long for it to have any effect on me.

"No you cannot Eldon! You realize we need that money for the job at hand?!" Sometimes his failure to grasp basic economics, the principal of not spending money in order to save it is lost on him.

"Your right, I'll just stay here, no point asking the landlady for food when we're behind on rent, singing at the tavern will just get me hungry again, better to save my energy" He seemed to be saying this as much to himself as to me.

He began to pluck his lute again, but gone was the wretched off notes, what I heard now was a pleasing melody, it was...soft, and slender in form, simple, but elegant. Before me a young woman, of beauty I've seen only in fairies of the other plains, slipped from the pool, ringed by trees, clothed in a robe of thin blue silk, which seemed to absorb and radiate the moonlight. As she stepped up from the water, the moonlight played across her soft Elvin skin and the wet silk cling to her flesh, I was about to walk towards her...

"STOP THAT!" I yelled, slamming up my mental defences, well honed after many years of confronting otherworldly threats, wheeling around I yelled at Eldon, heedless of the stupid landlady "What the hell do you think you're doing! I'm trying to work and your playing an otherworldly peep show into my head!"

"Me? I'm just honing my skills, you know that song only shows a person their deepest desire, its not my fault you reacted as you did" Eldon smirked at me, "If I cant work at the Tavern I'm just going to have to sit here and practice." He continued, with that same little smirk upon his face.

I stared at him for a moment; sometimes I just cannot believe that he can be this way! I reached over and picked up the small money pouch sitting on my desk, and then flung it at Eldon, he deftly caught it, and grinned.

"Thank ye sir mage, much appreciated, I'll be back... later" He left the room with amazing speed, slamming the door behind him.

I sighed, and sat back down to my desk, I wonder how I ended up working with that guy sometimes...perhaps you wonder too, and perhaps I have some explaining to do.

I'm a Mage, not a Wizard...not yet at any rate, who rents a room with a friend, as hard as I find it is to say that, Eldon is indeed my friend, we've saved each others lives countless times, it seems the only time we act like friends is when we're both in danger but in peacetime...well you know. We run a small investigation business, taking whatever jobs we can get. Missing persons, stolen goods, the standard fair, things aren't always so predictable however, such as our current job. A customer needs an enchantment wrought upon his full plate suit of amour to prevent demons from gaining access to his physical body, not an easy task, and the dead line was a week, which would be good if the end of that week wasn't this afternoon.

I sighed again and looked down at the roll of parchment I was working on, to the uneducated eye it is a mess of symbols, diagrams, scrawled Latin and calculations, in fact...it is a mess no matter how educated you are. I'm just sloppy like that.

It was just the final piece of the puzzle giving me difficulty, casting my eyes down to it I did a double take, as I found that part of the diagram...already filled in... written in my hand writing! When did that happen?! My thoughts flitted back to the mental images Eldon's song had infused into my mind... "Well I'll be damned," I muttered. Seems that in that moment of delusion, my unconscious mind had leapt forth with the answer it held unknown to my conscious mind. 'Well then, I've got the hard part of the job all worked out, and Eldon is down getting some money at the tavern, things are looking...' My train of thoughts was interrupted as a new thought leapt onto the stage of my mind... 'He is at the tavern, unsupervised, with money not his own... yes he's not coming back sober, that's for sure' I groaned as the realization came to me. He had played me like his lute, using distracting visions to stop me thinking clearly and realizing just what his intentions were...I sighed again.

An hour later the spell was complete, I roused my mind from its meditative state, and scattered the remaining elemental energy constructions, which supported the spell's completion. Moving the amour to one side, I set about cleaning the elaborate chalk circle, and accompanying symbols off the stone floor. If the landlady knew how frequently I would draw upon the floor to accomplish my spell casting, she'd evict us for sure.

It was about this time I heard two sets of foot steps coming up the stairs to the room...two...quickly I stood up...cant be Eldon, even if he came back here with a friend he's obviously sober, otherwise he'd be singing and generally making an ass of himself. I'm not paranoid but in our line of work, Eldon and I have made a lot of enemies.

Grabbing my staff I began channelling the air element from it. Like surgery, magic is a slow and careful procedure but what I was attempting here was more like battlefield first aid, rough and uncertain. I might knock them back down the stairs, or I might sheer the whole roof of the building...hard to say. Darting around behind the door, I waited for it to open.

Knock...knock "Visnock! Its Eldon and Pandora, you can stop freaking out!"

I barely jumped away from my hiding spot when Eldon strode through the door, tailed by a short Silver haired girl, with a massive cylinder of metal upon her shoulder.

Her red eyes scanned the room, when they rested on me she shrieked and ran full pelt towards me, before sending us both toppling to the floor in a massive flying hug. "Visnock, long time no see...you're paler than usual, too much time spent inside doing this magic stuff I see, it's not healthy!" She said in a nagging tone, pulling herself back up, leaving me on the floor stunned and a bit shocked.

Eldon grinned at me and sat down "Pandora you sound like his moth..." "And you Eldon, don't you think its time you got a haircut, you look like a dandelion!" She continued on the same breath, whirling around to point a scolding finger at Eldon.

Eldon's cocky grin vanished.

"Do you two want to tell me what it is exactly your doing here...and why aren't you drunk Eldon?" I started to enquire...then I looked from one to the other.  
"Wait...you two aren't...?" I asked, uncertainly.

Eldon raised an eyebrow, before wincing because Pandora chose that moment to whack him in the back of the head with her chain gun.

Eldon turned, a vein throbbing in his forehead "What the hell was that for!?" He snarled

"That was for giving people the impression I could be in any way attracted to a lay about like you!" She sounded genuinely offended.

"You little..." Eldon look about ready to kick in a wall... "Anyway, we're here because we've been contacted about a job...you have finished our current one right?" Eldon continued, rubbing the back of his head, as Pandora strode across the room and set her chain gun down on a clear space of my desk, I winced as the desk groaned.

"You mean MY job Eldon, you've done squat to help." I said, taking my eyes off the desk and turning to Pandora who was now sitting on the end of my bed flipping through an issue of "Arms and Ammo Monthly", "Pandora, can you possibly put that gun on the floor, I don't know how much more that old desk can take"

Pandora looked over the top of her magazine, and asked me in an incredulous voice "And scratch it? Methinks...no!" Her eyes dropped back down to the article she was reading.

I sighed and turned back to Eldon, " You said something about a job?"

Eldon looked up from his note pad, "Indeed a job, Sister Panere of Prontera Church, wants us to investigate something for her, a sensitive matter it seems. You know the monastery located west of Prontera?"

I thought for a moment, "Yeah I think I know it, never seen any reason to go there though...isn't that where Acolytes train to become Monks?"

Eldon snapped his fingers "Absolutely correct, Visnock wins the grand prize! Seriously though..."

I interrupted him, "You've never been serious a day of your life"

Eldon rolled his eyes and continued, "Seems there was a small shrine there guarded by a Champion of the Monk Order, don't know why though, its some strange tradition...Anyway seems he's gone missing. An Acolyte was sent to him as part of her training 3 days ago but he was nowhere at the shrine, nobody's heard from him for the last fortnight, but its hard to tell how long he was missing before the Acolyte discovered his absence. Seems he didn't get many visitors. Sister Panere has requested we meet her at the Monastery immediately to begin investigating this matter." He finished reading from his note pad and looked up at us.

"Ok well that all makes sense, but why do we need to drag Pandora into thus?" I asked confused, upon seeing that same look of offence register of Pandora's face I quickly added "Not that we don't love having you around! Just wondering."

Eldon sighed "Visnock, this is a Champion of the Monk order, charged with a sacred duty to guard that shrine. He sure as hell wouldn't leave it of his own choice, not without informing the church, and I cant see him going off into the forest and dieing out there of some accident...not a Champion. Which leaves..."

"Murder" Pandora finished his sentence.

I threw my hands up in defeat "Ok so I don't know anything about the Monk order, whatever, lets just get things organised for the trip, I'll contact Garen, and tell him his amour is ready to be picked up, he'll pay us and with that we'll get some supplies for the trip and head out at sunrise, sound good?" I said rising from my chair to get the amour packaged up ready for transport.

"Visnock takes the initiative, that's a novelty" Eldon said with his usual smug grin which was cut short when Pandora hit him from across the room with a well aimed book.

"You two be nice, I'm not travelling with you if its always going to be like this!" She warned, not having taken her eyes off her magazine the whole time...that's a gunslinger for you.

The rest of the afternoon passed rather uneventfully. Garen came to collect his amour, thanking me profusely, he even started filling me in on what he had planned for it but I cut him short. I prefer not to know what people do with things I enchant, I don't have to feel guilty that way if they use it immorally. I let Eldon go out and get the supplies, which left me dozing on my bed, tired after a week of exhausting research and magical application, while Pandora sat in the chair nearby and talked on about the blood loss to bullet size ratio of the new "bloody shells" she wanted to order. I in my tired state wasn't listening to a single word. 'Perhaps tomorrow might offer a nice quick job with easy money' I pondered drifting off to sleep.

Yeah and Baphomet might decide to redeem himself and become a priest!


End file.
